touching base

1.
i never told you about running into s. and her dad on the PATH a few weeks ago. sad/sweet. i couldn't see her face for a while b/c of all these legs between our faces, but i could hear her voice just fine. and her father is unmistakeable. this was part of the sad thing: her father, after noticing me, covered his lap. later, i saw that his lap was wet. from a spill or from urine, i could not tell. i could tell that he was embarrassed, though, so i put off saying hello until he was comfortably covered. s is the same, by the way, a character. just taller.

2.
on my drive back from brooklyn tonight, i sat in traffic thinking about becoming a foster parent. i've thought about it before, but it's always one of those things like "oh, it would be a good thing to do" ideas, not an idea i've ever really started to flesh out into an action. i don't know, i think i want to start thinking about it more seriously.

vs and i were on the subway sort of late last night and this woman started talking to us and slowly broke both our hearts into a million pieces. she was with a guy who she said was "an old friend" but who soon dropped out of the conversation and turned his back to her. he was clearly going to be paying her for sex, and she was clearly kind of fucked up and kind of embarrassed about it. but she was also clearly a person who had not always been fucked up and when we got off the train, vs and i were just sort of sad about it b/c there was really nothing he or i could do to help her at this point. i was like, "man, what can we do?" and he was like, "go back in time and talk to her parents?"

i don't know that i can do anything for this woman - claire - but i wonder if i can do something for someone else. yes, i know: i work with all these kids and help them do this and that and get them started on these lifepaths that hopefully see them through into happy, healthy adulthood, but these kids are SAFE, you know? they are starting out safe and are all on safe trajectories, at least. i really want to help someone who is not safe. i want to help put them on that same sort of trajectory.

i think i'm capable. i just don't know where to begin or when to begin.

have any of you had experience w/ your state's foster care system? i'd love to hear about it if so.

also, if you have a foster child, can you take them out of the country on vacation trips and things? or are there rules against that to prevent kidnapping etc?

3.
have signed on to volunteer again w/ GOTR manhattan. sweetjune will be donating lip balms to the girls' goody bags and yours truly will be keeping a girl on-pace through her mile or 5k on june 1. yeah, i know. these girls are already pretty safe, too. i think it's still okay to help the safe kids.

4.
broad street is in a week. the shirts are done & ordered, the fundraising goals have been met, the pre-race dinner is slated for bob's, and i'll be making the reservations for the post-race lunch tomorrow. i will also, i think, be running it in long pants this year, b/c apparently my lovely man is a leg-biter. showing up at the pool is the funniest.